NFL Announces Date, Time for Broncos' Regular Season Finale

Week 18 is officially set.

The NFL on Sunday announced the Denver Broncos' regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers will take place on Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High, with kickoff scheduled for 2:25 p.m. MT. The game will be broadcast on CBS.

Our regular-season finale is set. ✍️#LACvsDEN will kick off this Sunday, Jan. 4 at 2:25pm MT on @NFLonCBS! pic.twitter.com/p51M8RXG4D
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 29, 2025

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There was some debate whether this contest could be slated for primetime, with the AFC West potentially up for grabs. That debate was squashed when Denver defeated the Chiefs on Christmas and the Texans vanquished the Chargers on Saturday, officially securing its first division crown since 2015.

However, a bigger prize remains at stake: the No. 1 seed in the AFC, which comes along with a first-round bye and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. The Broncos can clinch that with a win Sunday.

“Historically speaking, it’s extremely important," head coach Sean Payton said Monday of the top conference seed. "Every study would show you... And there is a number of reasons for that. These games are three hours long. The first reason would be, you skip a game in which you’re at risk to not play well or an opponent all of a sudden has a great game. You skip the threat of potentially losing a game, if that makes any sense. You skip right to the next round. To be able to play in front of our fans with the crowd noise, the atmosphere. I don’t know, it’s been a while since they’ve hosted a playoff game. Certainly it’s a fan base that deserves that opportunity. I get excited for them, and I get excited for our team. Man, all of it is important. Having been through this like nine, 10 other times, you’ve seen it all and you recognize how important it is: The challenge of winning playoff games on the road and how much more difficult that it is as opposed to trying to win them at home.”

Payton, Nix — Dec 14, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton stands on the sidelines during the second quarter against the Green Bay Packers at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

Payton Unmoved by Champion Merch

The Broncos' grizzled head man has explained on numerous occasions that winning the division is merely the first of three stated goals for the 2025 season — clinching the No. 1 seed and winning the Super Bowl are the others.

So it makes sense that Payton and his players were largely unaffected by the AFC West champion merchandise the league released for sale. They have bigger fish yet to fry, and more important swag possibly awaiting in the weeks ahead.

"Equipment got… ‘Flip’ (Equipment Manager Chris Valenti) says, he texted me, ‘What do you want me to do?’ And I said, ‘Just put them in the lockers.’ We actually didn’t even talk about it," Payton told reporters Monday. "I don’t know if that’s something I should have or omitted. I haven’t seen the hats or the shirts. My understanding is they’re pretty ugly. We just didn’t really talk about it. The focus was on this week’s game, and the Chargers and the seeding ramifications, really trying to educate them relative to what’s going to be important here down the stretch and then improving. The one area that has to improve is the turnover margin, and that can happen. We did a collective of the last 25 years of Super Bowl winners. It’s something like 114 in the plus. There’s been one Super Bowl winner in the last 25 years… I’m just talking about when the playoffs begin, if that makes sense. When the playoffs begin, the Rams recently were the only minus-two turnover team. The rest added up to some crazy number, and so that’s something we have to improve on.”